All things considered, a project that only lasts 5-10 minutes might be an ideal entry point into directing. Having thirteen other mini-projects surrounding you in the meantime? Well, if you need someone to pick up the slack…

So it’s fair to say that Cate Blanchett, Mia Wasikowska, and David Wenham (300) are in a good spot with The Turning, an omnibus adaptation of Tim Winton‘s short story collection. They’re — as you can probably tell — all getting behind the camera for this project, while Benedict Andrews, Jonathan auf der Heide, Tony Ayres, Shaun Gladwell, Rhys Graham, Justin Kurzel Ian Meadows, Yaron Lifschitz, Claire McCarthy, Ashlee Page, and Stephen Page have also been lined up. Each filmmaker will be handling one of fourteen stories in the book, all of which “explore[s] the extraordinary turning points in seemingly disparate but connected people’s lives.” [THR]

Sounds intriguing; the only concern held on my own part, as of right now, is that Turning gives in to the misery porn of something such as Crash. (Or, you know, half of the anthology films made in the past 20 years.) Oh, also: I really, really don’t want to see anything that resembles Crash. Avoid that much, and we might be off on the right foot.

“Set on a coastal stretch of Western Australia, Tim Winton’s stunning collection of connected stories is about turnings of all kinds — changes of heart, slow awakenings, nasty surprises and accidents, sudden detours, resolves made or broken. Brothers cease speaking to each other, husbands abandon wives and children, grown men are haunted by childhood fears. People struggle against the weight of their own history and try to reconcile themselves to their place in the world. With extraordinary insight and tenderness, Winton explores the demons and frailties of ordinary people whose lives are not what they had hoped.”

Have you read the original novel, and do you think a compelling film lies in it?